Death of inmate raises concerns

Goya Dmytryshchak

QUESTIONS have been raised about conditions at Port Phillip Prison after an inmate hanged himself in his cell on Sunday.

The inmate's death followed an incident on Monday last week when another prisoner started a fire in his cell at Victoria's privately run maximum security prison in Truganina.

G4S operates the jail, which has the capacity for 951 men. The prison received its first prisoners in 1997.

Concerns about the suicide were raised when the parent of a different prisoner contacted Fairfax Media about conditions at the prison.

The woman said her son had overheard the entire incident and said there was inadequate access to psychologists for prisoners.

''I don't know why there's no cameras there for starters,'' she said.

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''There should be cameras just outside the cells in the hallway so they can see what goes on. Even a lot of the fights and things that go on in there, there's no cameras in those areas.''

A spokesman for the Centre for the Human Rights of Imprisoned People, Charandev Singh, said the prison operator had been found by the coroner to have contributed to previous deaths in custody. ''G4S have already been found five times to have contributed to deaths of inmates in their care,'' Mr Singh said.

''On four of those occasions it was in relation to not providing a safe physical environment for prisoners in terms of the provision of hanging points.''

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Those four incidents all occurred within the first year of the prison's operation and the facility was subsequently redesigned in mid-1998.

The principal solicitor with the Prisoners' Legal Service, Matilda Alexander, said it was more than 20 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended removal of all hanging points in prisons.

''How many more deaths have to occur before these recommendations are fully implemented?'' she asked.

A Corrections Victoria spokesman confirmed a 36-year-old prisoner was found dead on Sunday.

''Local police attended the prison, and the matter has been referred to the coroner for investigation in line with normal practice. The matter is not considered suspicious,'' he said.

G4S spokeswoman Emma Lindell said due to the coroner's investigation ''we are unable to comment further''.